Narrating cold wars: LOUIS MENAND

This keynote is part of our three-day conference, Narrating Cold Wars.

Keynote: Issues in Cold War Historiography — Louis Menand

Professor Menand will raise historiographical questions about the period and ask whether there has been a shift in the last 10 years, particularly in cultural history. Louis Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor or Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor, in recognition of his teaching. His books include The Metaphysical Club, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians, and the Heartland Prize from the Chicago Tribune. He has been associate editor of The New Republic (1986–1987), an editor at The New Yorker (1993–1994), and contributing editor of The New York Review of Books (1994–2001). Since 2001, he has been a staff writer at The New Yorker, which he began writing for in 1991. In 2016, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.